


Soft

by Kyirah



Series: RoyEd Month 2020 [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Character Study, M/M, Roy's Whipped, RoyEd Month 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:01:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23955781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyirah/pseuds/Kyirah
Summary: Day 2 of Royed month: RigidA.K.A. a Roy character study
Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang, Maes Hughes & Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye & Roy Mustang
Series: RoyEd Month 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726450
Kudos: 85
Collections: RoyEd month





	Soft

Roy Mustang prided himself on being a very observant person. He learned how to look for pattern behaviors and minor physical shifts when he was very little, because he grew up with Madam Christmas' girls, and there was nothing that would make him madder than a guy raising a hand to one of them.

He learned to watch for who was too drunk, for who had a mean streak, for which girls were sore, and which ones looked tired. He learned how to tell Aunt Chris all of that discreetly, how to steer the girls to the backroom with the pretense of playing, how to distract clients with dropped cups and spilled drinks.

He applies that all later, watches for holes in arguments and signs of discomfort, searches for advantages in dialogue, and hoards idle information that could as well be bombs in the right setting. He turns himself into a politician, into the kind of man the girls would love to serve and the Madam would love to get drunk and babbling.

He doesn't enjoy it, hates how its instinct to hoard secrets, how he built his house on lies and scheming and facades, and how on some days even he can't tell what kind of creature lives below all of that.

Maes used to be able to tell, but he's not here anymore.

Roy plays at soft words and gentle nudges, but that's just because he's blunted his sharp edges with sugar-covered words and keeps his claws tucked in on polite company. Roy's a contrast of flamboyantly air-headed and laser-focused interest, of soft cotton gloves and steel-hard posture.

He's fancied himself as a tiger many times, all deceptive grace and razor teeth, but it's just in his own home, alone and adrift midnight toughs, that he thinks of the sleek slither of a snake, the deceptive size of a falcon's claws, the solid immovable bulk of a bear.

He's been called cold, before. Frigid, unfeeling, unempathetic. He tends to find it funny, because he feels so much it threatens to drown him most days, always has the smell of burned flesh chasing him wherever he goes.

What he is is _rigid_ , unwilling to give an inch before taking a mile, set into his path no matter what, fixed on his goal and unflinching from it.

He's not willing to change. Not for those that call him cold, not for those, he considers _his_ and definitely not for himself.

Hawkeye doesn't _want_ him soft, has no place for it in the world she's built for herself, no need for him to give and bend for her. She shapes up to be just as solid as him, just as rigid and strong, and they're both pillars that support each other. None of them has a place, or a _right_ , to be anything less than completely unmoving.

Maes _melted_ him, took his attitude and determination, and molded him into the pillar he is today, always, _always_ the better part of what Roy was supposed to be, the objective Roy tried to achieve. He may have been one of the factors that made Roy who he is, but he never forgot those days in the academy, knew Roy when he was still malleable, and knew just what he was made of.

Fullmetal, now. Well.

Edward is, himself, a study in contrasts. He's inattentive care, the soft give of a punch, kindness given absentmindedly, and the most abrasive kind of love. He's cold metal colored warm gold, loud steps between pensive silences, and a dogged dedication to very few.

Edward makes him _flexible_. He wouldn't know what to do with _soft_ if it hit him over the head, yet he craves it with unsaid depths. He pulls reactions out of Roy he thought long lost, makes his unapproachable seem like a challenge, takes his coldness as a personal offense. He makes it sure Roy's lost control of which facade he's supposed to keep, he tears his walls down like they're nothing but a minor inconvenience and Roy _wants_.

He wants to be _better_ , _do better_. He wants to be worth that, wants to build a future where Ed could find soft and not feel guilty about it, he wants to gather all those sharp edges and say _it's okay, you can be soft, I'll be a pillar for the both of us_.

He reaches unseen heights when Ed lets him see him sleepy and still not up-in-arms against the world, feels his heart constrict when Ed lets him see him hurting, feels like a changed man when Ed lets him draw a warm bath and help him into a change of clothes.

Roy learned to take care of people under Madam Christmas, learned the value of subtle caring with the girls, and he'd always felt satisfied when the girls smiled in gratitude at him.

But there's absolutely no comparison between that and the moments' Ed lets him take charge, take _care_ , the sleepy smiles and the simple trust that goes into letting Roy know he's tired, the shy glances and the absolute _loyalty_ that goes into sleeping on Roy's couch because Ed feels safe when Roy's simply _around._

There are few times Roy lets himself be soft, allows himself to be anything but solid and frigid, but with Ed's breaths soft and slow beside him, the certainty that Riza has everything in control for the day, the feeling that this is something Maes would approve of, well. There's no harm in a day off, is there?


End file.
